Goodbye Goodison Park: Re-living some Wanderers memories at the Grand Old Lady

Yahoo

17-05-2025

The stadium will not be demolished, instead being repurposed for the club's women's team, but for many Sunday's game against Southampton will be the end of an era.
Wanderers have enjoyed some storied battles with the blue half of Merseyside, so we decided to open up the archives and look at a few of our favourites, starting with a White Hot (2) night in the FA Cup.
Owen Coyle scores for Wanderers against Everton in the 1994 FA Cup (Image: NQ) BOLTON'S brave cup fighters were confident lighting would strike twice on Merseyside… and so it proved.
A year after Bruce Rioch's upwardly-mobile Wanderers pulled off their famous 'White Hot' FA Cup giant-killing at Anfield, they repeated the feat at Goodison Park in almost identical fashion – drawing the third-round tie at Burnden Park before winning the replay against all the odds on Everton's own hallowed turf.
'Here we go again!' screamed the headline after the 1-1 draw – Mark Patterson's equaliser early in the second half cancelling out Paul Rideout's 44th-minute opener before Wanderers squandered a series of chances to have settled it at the first attempt.
To outsiders it was advantage Everton but that had also been the case the previous season when Liverpool came from 2-0 down to take the tie back to Anfield where they were expected to put the Wanderers – then a third-tier side – well and truly in their place.
Of course, it did not pan out that way in 1993 and the 1994 vintage Wanderers were not only inspired by that famous victory but, having been promoted to the second tier, they were a better side and better equipped.
Cue 'White Hot 2'.
Two-nil down in the Goodison replay after Stuart Barlow netted his second of the game just after half time – they didn't quite manage to replicate their overwhelming dominance of the Liverpool game. But although not as comprehensive a victory, it was no less deserved and, in some ways, a greater achievement.
This time it was all about passion, desire, never-say-die spirit and an over-riding will to win.
In front of a crowd of 34,642, Rioch's charges produced a performance of character that saw John McGinlay (who else?) start the fightback with a sweet strike and with the pendulum swinging dramatically, lifelong Everton fan Alan Stubbs pounced on a rare Neville Southall fumble to snatch an equaliser six minutes from the end of normal time to take the replay to extra-time.
Owen Coyle's killer finish in the first half of the extra period – the product of the wing wizardry of the hero of Anfield David Lee – was confirmation, if it were needed, that there was something special about the Bolton teams of that era.
McGinlay – scorer of the first goal of the Anfield replay 12 months earlier – took just as much pride, if not more, in the Goodison win.
'It was better because we did it the hard way,' said the talismanic Scot.
'At 2-0 down nobody would have fancied us.'
Owen Coyle and John McGinlay under the Goodison Park lights (Image: NQ) Even the eternally optimistic Rioch was honest enough to admit: 'At 2-0 I thought it might not be our day.'
But the Burnden boss knew better than anyone that his side could never be under-estimated – as they showed again in the fourth round when they completed their giant-killing hat-trick at Arsenal – White Hot 3!
For Stubbs, who was on the Goodison books as a schoolboy and was now developing into an influential figure in the Burnden set-up, this was a career highlight.
'The greatest night of my life,' he said.
'Scoring against Everton is unbelievable.
'But I always thought we could do it after the first one went in.
'A lot of teams would have been written off, but not us.'
Coyle was perhaps the unlikeliest of heroes at that particular time.
The Glasgow-born striker signed from Airdrie the previous summer, he had been carpeted by Rioch for critical comments he made in an article in a Scottish newspaper and was not exactly flavour of the month.
Never one to tolerate a player stepping out of line, Rioch had taken the hard line with his fellow Scot, dropping him from the squad for the previous Saturday's league game at Millwall. But, having made his point, he restored him to the starting line-up for the replay and got just what he wanted on the night.
'He got a rollicking on Monday, he was on the teamsheet on Tuesday and on the scoresheet on Wednesday,' Rioch said, reflecting on the amazing turn of events.
'His criticism centred on the fact that I used players like pawns.
'It was a problem but we had the managerial make-up to resolve it and not hold it against him.
'We didn't take him to London last week – in fact we didn't speak to him for a week because he spoke out of turn.'
Coyle, who had saved Wanderers blushes with two goals in the first round against Gretna, claimed he had been misrepresented in the offending article and insisted he wanted to put the controversy behind him.
'All I said was I wasn't happy about not being in the team. But it's something I want to forget about now,' he said as his winner was being toasted by 8,000 travelling Bolton fans.
'All that matters is the result – and to come from behind against any Premier League side is a great achievement.'
John McGinlay challenges Everton's Ian Snodin during the FA Cup game at Goodison (Image: PA)
Goodison Park, as seen in 1966 when it hosted games for the World Cup finals (Image: PA)
WANDERERS have been visiting Goodison Park since the first season it opened in 1892/93, losing on their first visit by three goals to nil.
In all competitions they have visited the Grand Old Lady 70 times, and claimed 11 victories, the first of which arrived in November 1896.
Here we look back at a few of Bolton's other celebrated games at Goodison.
Adam Bogdan lies on his back after Tim Howard's wind-assisted kick ended up in the net (Image: PA)January 4, 2012: A swirling Tuesday night wind at Goodison propelled Blues keeper Tim Howard's clearance a full 100 yards before bouncing over an embarrassed Adam Bogdan and into the net.
Bogdan had replaced Jussi Jaaskelainen, who little did we know at the time, had played his last game for Bolton. The same could be said for Gary Cahill, who added to David Ngog's equaliser before joining Chelsea.
Stelios wheels away after scoring a stunning solo goal against Everton in 2005 (Image: PA)
December 17, 2005: Wanderers ripped through Everton with three goals in five minutes at the end of the game, and a result Big Sam described as a 'major, major feat.'
Kevin Davies set them on their way with a scrambled first-half header from close range. Stelios doubled the lead after converting a cross from Ricardo Vaz Te and boyhood Evertonian Gary Speed netted a third from the penalty spot. Stelios saved the best until last, though, nicking the ball from Leon Osman and firing an unstoppable effort past Richard Wright.
Youri Djorkaeff scores the winner against Everton in May 2004 - his last Bolton goal (Image: PA)
May 8, 2004: European football may have eluded Wanderers – for one more season at least – but the penultimate weekend of the season brought a chance to celebrate one of Bolton's greats.
Youri Djorkaeff scored his final two goals for the club to rack up a fifth straight win for Allardyce's side. Duncan Ferguson, partnering a teenage Wayne Rooney in the Blues' attack, had briefly levelled the game.
Neil Whatmore, left, grabbed a leveller at Goodison in the 1977 League Cup final (Image: PA)
January 18, 1977: Ian Greaves's Wanderers had fought their way to the League Cup semi-final and gave themselves a fighting chance in the first leg on Merseyside against an Everton side in the caretaker stewardship of Steve Burtenshaw.
Duncan McKenzie had powered home a Ronnie Goodlass corner to give the Blues a lead but the 54,000-plus crowd was silenced late on when keeper David Lawson was penalised for taking too many steps with the ball. Neil Whatmore stepped up to blast the free kick into the net, setting up a tasty second leg at Burnden which, alas, narrowly went Everton's way.